Education and politics mix at forum

By LIBBY ROSOF

Put the best teachers in the worst schools.

That was one of the proposals from a group of distinguished education
experts and practitioners gathered at the Inn at Penn by the U.S. Department
of Education and Penns Consortium for Policy Research in Education
(CPRE) two days earlier this month.

The forum was the first in a series to be held around the country by the
Department of Education on the national issue of turning around low-performing
schools. The department, looking for a credible partner to co-host the
first forum in the series, chose CPRE, said the departments Hugh
Burkett.

The 30 participants brought their experience in the ivory tower, in politics,
in the classroom and in urban and suburban school administration to the
wide-ranging discussion.

This is amazing, said JoAnn Manning, associate director of
the federally funded regional education lab at Temple University, after
listening to suggestions from the educators. A lot of these are
commonsense things.

But discussion on day two of the forum demonstrated that common sense
does not always prevail in public education.

Some common sense not followed? Assign teachers who know about science
to teach science classes; align testing and standards with the curriculum,
and then make sure teachers follow the curriculum; or, again, put the
best teachers in the most difficult schools.

In Shanghai, theres no prohibition on where to assign a teacher,
said School of Education Dean Susan Fuhrman. Its an honor
to be placed in the most difficult situation.

In Philadelphia, the opposite philosophy prevails.

Politics, not whats best for the kids, is the basis for many education
decisions, complained Julia Lara of the Council of Chief State School
Officers.

Take the newly popular tactic of reconstituting the staff of a low-performing
school. Reconstitution magnifies the problems of recruitment and retention
of teachers, said CPREs Jennifer ODay, assistant professor
of education at the University of Wisconsin. The reconstituted school
gets a novice staff and a novice principal. Theres a trade-off
between expertise and enthusiasm, she said. Enthusiasm is
not enough of a formula for success.

But some things do work, like creating learning communities where teachers
emerge from the isolation of their classrooms to solve problems and work
together to improve their teaching.

The discussion also focused on what roles state and federal education
departments should each play in building better schools.

At the heart of their roles were two issues accountability and
support. Accountability is only going to be a successful lever if
an equal amount of energy is put into the support side of the equation,
said Mitchell D. Chester of the School District of Philadelphia.

After the forum, Burkett said that a new president would not affect the
Department of Educations focus on low-performing schools. How
we approach it may change, but attention to these failing schools will
not go away, he said.

Penn Current Express

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